About this blog

Orijyn is helping a school in Laos develop sustainable handcraft businesses for artisans in remote villages who have few revenue opportunities. Following are impressions of Laos we’ve gathered along the way.

Our shipments are not big enough to fill a container on a ship so we have been trying different methods of getting our handcrafted items safely to the U.S. In exploring freight costs and services, we decided to try the Lao Postal Service for a shipment of bamboo basket containers that we didn't need in the next month or two or three.

Bandith constructed a shipping box from two smaller boxes, filled it with the bamboo baskets and had the school van take him and the box (almost as tall as he is) to the post office in Vientiane. Less than a week later, the box showed up in our office in San Francisco, plastered in what I calculated to be $190 worth of beautiful Lao stamps.

Mark called Bandith that night to let him know that the box had surprisingly arrived (and in time that could give the U.S. Postal Service a run for it's money!) Bandith replied, "Thanks the Gods!" with a big sigh of relief.

Web Forms
8/23/2010
hey man I like it. I'm off to write more articles and try out your ideas. After all, we always have something new to learn and being humble, I came here to learn. Bookmarked.

- John

Submit Form
10/5/2010
It took me a long time to search on the web, only your site explain the fully details, bookmarked and thanks again.

- Laura

rayjones
6/13/2011
Can vouch for Lao Postal Services-Sent a 6kg parcel home on April 12th from Luang Prabang.Was told that it would take 2 months to arrive & sure enough,2 months to the day, it wasduly delivered! Intact.

Irsal
9/23/2012
Hi Karen,I love these posts about the old silk and even more so with the research that you mom is doing. How wondurfel what she has been able to accomplish so much.The photos of the silk are wondurfel and perhaps the fascination is much more than what it appears.Very best wishes,Barbara